The California Mobility Justice Advocates Network is a group of advocates across the state working on intersecting issues of mobility justice, community safety, climate resilience and racial justice. We believe in the intersectionality of equity issues and understand that climate threats exacerbate already challenging conditions for our communities, so we look to combat these threats through our work. 

ClimatePlan is excited to use our platform to feature our network partner PolicyLink and the work they're doing - thank you Axel Santana for contributing this blog!

Members of the Mobility Justice Advocates Network along with Assemblymember Phil Ting speaking during a session titled Decriminalizing Biking & Walking, at the 2022 CalBike Summit

The following responses were provided to ClimatePlan by Axel Santana, Associate at PolicyLink. ClimatePlan is excited to feature our network partners on our blog. Note that the views, positions, and work of ClimatePlan's network partners is their own and does not represent the views, positions, and work of ClimatePlan. If you or your organization are interested in contributing a blog for consideration, please email Moiz Mir at [email protected]

Tell us about your organization: Where do you work? What issues do you focus on? How is the organization structured?

PolicyLink is a national research and action institute, dedicated to advancing racial and economic equity, based out of Oakland, CA. We work on a variety of issues, including housing, transportation, water equity and climate resilience, economic equity, community safety alternatives, and more. We are a nonprofit organization, with approximately 80 full time staff, and a couple of fiscal sponsee organizations. Our work is mostly national in scope, although we engage on several place based initiatives, and have a California focus where we advance legislative advocacy, issue-specific projects, and network and movement building. 

What project(s) and initiative(s) is your organization currently working on? 

As part of our California work, we are excited to be co-coordinating the California Mobility Justice Advocates Network, a group of advocates across the state working on intersecting issues of mobility justice, community safety, climate resilience and racial justice. This network was formed a few years ago and has been expanding ever since. We have hosted webinars, convened youth for a lobby day at the Capitol, and have supported campaigns and initiatives that advance mobility justice for all Californians across the state. Some of our most active members include ClimatePlan, California Walks, California Bicycle Coalition, Safe Routes Partnership, LA Walks, Greenlining Institute, Santa Ana Active Streets, and ChangeLab Solutions, among others!    

How do these advance the climate movement?

As mobility justice advocates, we are always looking for opportunities to advance solutions to challenges that Black, Indigenous, people of color and low income communities face every day. As we know, these communities are hit first and worst by climate disasters, so many of our partner organizations advocate for policies and initiatives that aim to curb climate change and environmental disasters. Most importantly, the transportation sector is the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore has the biggest role to play in solving this crisis. As advocates who work on issues impacting people’s ability to move around freely, this fits squarely into our network’s priorities. We believe in the intersectionality of equity issues and understand that climate threats exacerbate already challenging conditions for our communities, so we look to combat these threats through our work.  

How can ClimatePlan network members get involved or stay connected?

If you’re interested in staying connected or joining the CA Mobility Justice Advocates Network, please reach out to Axel Santana at [email protected]. You can also take a look at our CA Mobility Justice Advocates Guiding Principles, where we make the case for advancing mobility justice and share promising practices and examples of great work being led by advocates across the state. Please feel free to use these in your work and spread the word!